Restored Version of ‘Manthan’ to be Screened at Cannes Film Festival

Mumbai: The restored version of Shyam Benegal’s 1976 classic movie “Manthan” will be screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder of Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) on Thursday informed this on his X page. “Manthan” is the third consecutive movie restored by the foundation to be screened at Cannes. FHF brought a restoration of G Aravindan’s Malayalam movie “Thampu” (1978) to Cannes Classics in 2022, followed by the restored “Ishanou” — directed by Manipuri auteur Aribam Syam Sharma — under the same segment last year.

“Manthan’ starring Smita Patil was inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, who is credited for ‘Operation Flood’ and the billion dollar brand Amul.

“Unbelievable Third year in a row at Cannes Film Festival …Film Heritage Foundation is proud to bring the Restoration of Shyam Benegal’s milestone film ‘Manthan’ produced by 500,000 farmers who gave rupees 2 to produce this film…I wish Smita Patil was here to see this… (sic)” Dungarpur wrote in his X post. “Manthan” was co-written by Benegal and celebrated playwright Vijay Tendulkar. It is said to be the first crowd-funded Indian film which was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs 2 each.

The film won National Film Awards for best feature film in Hindi and for best screenplay in 1977. It was also India’s official entry to the 1976 Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category.

Its title song “Mero Gaam Katha Parey”, sung by Preeti Sagar, was later used as the soundtrack for Amul’s television commercial.